On February 12th, Kwame Teague spoke to us about how to eradicate racism. For those of you who could not attend as well as for those of you who would like a written summary of his talk, below is a summary of his talk (written by Kwame). If you would like to find out more about hiphophumanism, check out his website. His summary follows…
My talk is about my book Humanism vs Racism: Ten Steps to Eradication and how my project hiphophumanism.com is all about implementing these steps and many more. The book begins by saying that racism is the litmus test for humanism. In many ways it is like humanism’s evil twin because it is the dark side of our human nature whereas humanism is the collective self we try to be. It is like the truism, if you raise the bar of expectations, we as humans will rise to it. If you lower it, we race each other to the bottom. Right now, it seems like we are racing each other to the bottom. Fear, anger, and resentment are causing a divide that no conversation can reach. My book is about finding ways to bridge that divide.
Hip hop humanism is the art of being human. We are not a separate strain of humanism. We are not a “sub-sect”. We aren’t trying to create a brand new movement. Hip hop humanism will be an initiative within the larger humanist body itself. Everyone can take part in this initiative. Don’t let the name mislead you. Hip hop humanism is not about rapping or funky posturing. We are using art and self-expression to connect us back to one another because we believe that this creative aspect is where our true humanity lies. The conscious mind separates us from the whole because consciousness is the essence of individuality. But it is the place within us that responds to beauty, that laughs, cries, and dances is how we’ve connected since the dawn of man. We believe our rational selves seek purpose, but our creative selves seek meaning. That is hip hop humanism. We call it that simply because true hop hop is about true energy of self-expression so in that sense, rock-in-roll is hop hop, the blues is hip hop, country music and bluegrass is hop hop for those who speak through it. We’re just getting hiphophumanism.org off the ground, but we’d love to have you!
Here are 7 of the 10 steps…
- Make a commitment. – This may seem like an obvious step, but it needs to be taken seriously. Reason being, this step should be taken more or less publicly. Sign an online pledge to be a part of a a concrete cause. You are in effect “binding yourself” because the collective cause can hold you accountable. We must be able to hold one another accountable, not for judgement, but for the strength of collective encouragement.
- Stop self identifying by race. – What purpose does this particular question actually serve on applications and the U.S. Census if it’s not to deepen the divide and create opportunities for radically based politics? Every ten years when we fill out the census card, we are asked for race. Then politicians use this “demographic” to gerrymander partisan race-based congressional districts that further undermine our democracy. Stop answering white or black. Check other, and write in “human.” That is the only race that matters.
- Find our true identity. – By using services like ancestry.com many people who thought they were one thing, i.e., German, found out they were some one else entirely, i.e., Dutch. This subtle psychological shift is important to increase our ability to empathize. We are slowly losing it. We need to see in our own lives how fluid ethnicity can truly be and find out things about yourself you never knew. Suppose you found out you were 25% black?
- Building bridges. – Reaching out to disparate communities with whom we may not agree but understand that we need to find common ground. These bridges wont be based on dialogue or political discourse. No. They will be based on our common humanity. Let us get to know one another again.
- Establishing outlets. – We do this by creating opportunities and platforms for reconciliation. Having shows on local TV, NPR, PBS, and the BBC speaking about Humanism, sponsoring compromise, having platforms for getting together are all very important in terms of creating opportunities.
- Re-establishing holidays. – Just the other day, March 8, International Woman’s Day made the news because of a world wide protest called “A Day Without Women.” Up until then, International Woman’s Day was a rather unknown but it is a day I’ve been championing in my book all along. We need a day to honor women. Mother’s Day is a time to honor Motherhood, which is needed, but if all we celebrate is a woman’s ability to bear children, then it can reinforce sexism as well. Lets celebrate women as a whole. We also need a day to celebrate ourselves – World Human Day!
- Political mobilization. – As distasteful as politics may be to some of us, it is a “necessary evil.” Reason being our democratic ideology compels us to be involved. If not, we leave a void for people like Trump and his ilk to fill. We need to field humanist candidates, champion humanist political agendas, and start humanists PACS. If we’re going to be the change we want to see, we can’t do it in isolation from the problem itself.
This is just a summary of the steps. My main “gist” that I want to convey is my steps aren’t the only steps. But they are geared towards creating new mindframes, new perspectives, subtle psychological shifts. Like the title says, eradicate racism. That is a strong word if you don’t believe racism can be eradicated, why would you even want to be active in fighting racism? In your mind you’re fighting a losing battle! So we need to reshape our thinking as well as our actions. Then we will be fully equipped to truly eradicate racism once and for all.
